Erae Gamelan webapp Instructions
10 key Sundanese saron layout
This Webapp processes MIDI events from an Erae 2 and uses it to play sampled gamelan instruments and MIDI sound sources.
This is the ".erproj" Erae 2 project that goes with this webapp: (may not work wth the new Erae Lab 2.0+)
- Gamelan with API Project:
- Gamelan without API Project:
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The layouts in that project are:
- Saron 14 key Gamelan instrument (closer to true range)
- Saron 10 key Gamelan instrument (closer to true size)
- Slenthem 7 key Gamelan instrument
- Gangsa 4 key Gamelan instrument
- 2 Gangsa 4 key Gamelan instruments
- Or you can get the ".emk" layouts individually: (may not work in new Erae Lab 2.0+)
- The "2 gangsas" layout is arranged so two people can play at once on opposite sides of the Era, with the two gangsas having some ombok (slight beating due to tuning differences)
MIDI output
- Connect this webapp's MIDI Input device to "Embodme: Erae 2 MIDI".
- This webapp plays samples, but if you want to also send notes to a MIDI synthesizer,
you can do that by choosing a MIDI Output device. You can turn the sample's volume down and just play MIDI if you like.
Make sure that the external MIDI device or virtual device is only listening to a generic port like "IAC Bus 1" and NOT to signals from the Erae directly. -
After setting up the input device, load the layout you want on the Erae and tap the yellow button at the top of the screen to tell this processor what you are playing. Tapping it again will change the instrument associated with the layout, which you can also pick from a drop down menu.
The Erae will also put a short nome of the instrument in the box at the top of the layout. - The Red button is an "all notes off" which is very useful.
- Gamelan mallet instruments are played by striking a key while manually damping the previous one you hit! The Erae 2 makes this physically a very authentic experience, by letting you damp a key by pinching the bottom of the device, just as you would on a real instrument! I also swapped to the silicone covering and use a real wooden gamelan mallet to play the notes! It's weirdly authentic.
- Each note you play is drawn on the device itself, in a slightly adapted cipher notation, with lines showing lower octaves or lines with a single cross for higher octaves. A "madenda 3" is rendered as a thicker "3".
Some instruments, though, are not normally damped, like Bonangs, Jengglongs and gambangs. When Playing MIDI instruments, they will send a note off for the note you played so the synth or sampler that actually plays the note won't fill up their polyphony quota.
This webapp has a few other parameters:
- Volume that controls the sample volume
- Offset that controls how the instrument samples map onto the layout. Each instrument has a scale associated with it, and that scale has a repeat length, and there may be a few transposed versions of a scale available for that instrument. There are extra octaves for the gangsa, for example. The offset means if the instrument has more notes than the layout provides, you can adjust their positions to get as many notes as you can!
Slightly out of date Videos:
Note: Try the Erae 2 autoharp webapp!
Credits:
This app is useless without an Embodme Erae 2
This app plays samples with the Howler javascript audio interface.